🎃 Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds | Ep. 5 – Giles, Please Tell Me There’s a Book About This

It’s time to return to Sunnydale for another supernatural adventure with Buffy and the gang! Expect vampires, demons, dangerous encounters, and the usual collection of problems that really ought to have been covered somewhere in Giles’ extensive library. Surely there’s a book explaining why everything keeps trying to kill us?

For this year’s HallowStream, we’re continuing our annual chunk of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds. Unfortunately, that means returning to Sunnydale High, where we left Xander last Halloween. Between unforgiving checkpoints, complicated puzzles and a surprising number of white rabbits, we certainly had our work cut out for us.

🧛 About the Game

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds brings us back into the supernatural world of Sunnydale, where a dreaded enemy from Buffy’s past has unleashed The First, the ultimate incarnation of evil. Buffy and her friends must work together to stop vampires, zombies and other creatures before Sunnydale is condemned to permanent darkness.

The game features an original story involving Buffy creator Joss Whedon and comic book writers Christopher Golden and Tom Sniegoski. We can play as Buffy, Willow, Xander, Spike, Faith and Sid the Dummy, with different weapons and over 150 combat moves and combinations. There’s also multiplayer fighting for up to four players, featuring more than 24 characters from the Buffy universe.

🗺️ Where We Are in the Journey

Over the last couple of Halloweens, we’ve been working through the original Xbox version of Chaos Bleeds, running backwards compatible on the Xbox 360.

We’re around the halfway point of the game, and last year we finished with Xander stuck in Sunnydale High. Unfortunately, we hadn’t made much progress because we kept dying and getting trapped in death loops.

The checkpoints are particularly unforgiving. If we die, we’re usually sent right back to the beginning of the level. Thankfully, tonight we only suffered one early death loop, leaving us free to spend most of the evening getting thoroughly confused by the school’s puzzles instead.

🐇 What Happens in This Episode

We began outside Sunnydale High with practically no equipment and vampires constantly attacking us. Fortunately, I remembered from last year that there was a stake around the side of the building. After dealing with a couple of vampires, we realised more were going to keep spawning, so we left them to it and headed inside. I hadn’t actually checked that we had the correct save file before starting, and I’d only managed to remind myself where we’d left off by watching the final couple of minutes of last Halloween’s stream.

There’s nothing quite like older games for making things complicated. Modern games often give you checkpoints every few minutes and practically tell you where to go. Chaos Bleeds prefers to let you work everything out yourself, and the controls certainly weren’t helping. I kept forgetting how to change weapons, pick things up and open certain doors. Given how unforgiving the checkpoints are, it was particularly frustrating when we suffered our first death and found ourselves right back near the beginning. Thankfully, that was the only death loop we had to deal with tonight.

Once we were back inside, we started exploring the school properly, fighting vampires, strange little gremlins and the occasional suspicious-looking bloke in a mask. Some enemies were constantly respawning, so we eventually realised there wasn’t much point fighting everything we encountered. We were already struggling to keep enough stakes and health supplies available, and the combat wasn’t always cooperating when we needed to change weapons quickly.

One of the first puzzles gave us the cryptic message, “The secret to the demon is hidden in the darkness.” We found an ultraviolet filter for our flashlight, which seemed like it might help reveal something. Naturally, I spent some time experimenting with the UV light, checking suspicious areas and seeing whether it might have any effect on the vampires or the strange plants blocking certain routes. We eventually found the password needed to move the dingly-dangly tentacles out of the way, using a recording of Principal Snyder’s voice through an intercom to get past the first major obstruction.

Unfortunately, clearing that passage only revealed another problem. A magical force field was blocking our progress, and we needed to find a way to disrupt whatever was generating it. After exploring the surrounding rooms, Xander discovered a magician’s hat that produced rabbits, along with the explanation that the rabbits were attracted to magical pentagrams.

And how were we supposed to disable this magical barrier?

By deploying the most terrifying creatures imaginable: white bunnies.

The idea was straightforward enough. We needed to find the magical patches around Sunnydale High, place the rabbits on them and disrupt the spells keeping the barrier active. Actually finding all the locations was another matter entirely, especially when the game wasn’t particularly interested in telling us where to go.

We started exploring every room we could access, picking up whatever useful equipment we found along the way. This included a computer disc, holy water, medical supplies, various explosives and a rather impressive-looking demonic weapon that unfortunately didn’t have any ammunition. We also discovered different coloured liquids, eventually combining yellow and green to make blue. What we were supposed to do with that was another question, although it didn’t stop me experimenting with it.

At one point, I wondered whether the liquid might work on one of the locked doors, or whether the fountain we’d encountered had something to do with the puzzle. We also tried using different equipment against the strange plants, with very little success. Meanwhile, the masked enemies were still throwing things at us, the gremlins kept getting in the way, and the awkward camera made searching some rooms considerably harder than it needed to be.

The biggest problem, though, was finding Giles’s library key. We needed to get into the locked library cage to reach another of the magical patches, which meant working out the puzzle involving Principal Snyder’s office and his safe. Unfortunately, we’d already used the dictaphone to get past the earlier obstruction, and it had disappeared from our inventory. We weren’t entirely sure whether we’d missed something or were supposed to find another way to open the safe.

This led to what felt like about three complete laps of Sunnydale High. We went through the same corridors, checked the same rooms and investigated just about every locked door we could find. The game kept repeating the same dialogue whenever Xander couldn’t open something, particularly his complaint about places being harder to get into than the girls’ locker room. After hearing that enough times, I was beginning to wonder whether we’d ever find the right key.

We even went back into rooms we’d previously searched, looking for anything that might have been hidden on a shelf or tucked away in a corner. I was walking around pressing the interaction button against practically everything, just in case there was something we’d overlooked. The camera wasn’t making that particularly easy either. At one point, I was completely lost and couldn’t remember which direction led back to the library, never mind where the missing key might be.

Thankfully, Gary was helping us investigate the puzzle from chat, looking up information about Snyder’s safe, the dictaphone and Giles’s key. We also tried asking AIDA for assistance, although that introduced a different problem. Gary was using voice-to-text, which kept turning Giles into “Charles” and Buffy the Vampire Slayer into “Buffet Vampire.” AIDA was consequently having a rather difficult time working out exactly what we were looking for.

Eventually, we remembered the computer disc we’d picked up earlier and started checking the computers again. We’d already visited some of these rooms and tried interacting with the consoles, but hadn’t been able to do anything useful with them. This time, one of the computers finally gave us what appeared to be the safe’s passcode. We returned to Principal Snyder’s office, opened the safe and, at long last, found the key to Giles’s library cage.

That had taken us roughly an hour to work out!

With the key finally in our possession, we headed back to the library, unlocked the cage and deployed another bunny. I was rather hoping that would be enough to remove the force field, but unfortunately the barrier was still active. We’d already placed several rabbits, and I couldn’t remember seeing any other locations during our travels. So, after all that searching, we had to start going around the school again.

Of course, we had plenty happening in chat to keep us entertained while we wandered around getting lost. FlyingFox21 celebrated seven months of subscribing and took on the responsibility of keeping our health and safety under control, which was probably an impossible task given what was happening on screen. Mr. Smith also arrived with his usual jukebox requests, treating everyone to “Cheese, You’re a Cheese” while we were trying to fight our way through Sunnydale High.

Mr. Smith later attempted a couple of Pokémon-hunting contracts, first against Banette with the Coconut Club and then against Toedscruel with the Cucumber Club. Unfortunately, neither went particularly well. After the first unsuccessful hunt, he decided the appropriate response was to play “The Heresy of Mr. Smith” through the jukebox. I don’t think that improved his fortunes, but it certainly kept everyone entertained.

We also had a wonderful surprise from TictaqJim, who generously gifted a collection of subscriptions to the community. As always, I never quite know how to thank everyone for that sort of support. Jim was also busy flying a helicopter in Warzone while chatting with us about some of the Raspberry Pi work I’ve been doing, including the deployment system, network configuration and the Cloudflare tunnel I’m trying to get working.

The conversation wandered through plenty of other subjects as well. We discussed Star Trek, compared our favourite series and talked about some of the actors and films. Mr. V was making progress in Construction Simulator, which led to another conversation about the amount of concrete involved in practically every building project. We also talked about school induction days, upcoming conventions and the accessibility problems I’d experienced at the event I’d attended the previous weekend. There was plenty to catch up on, even if I was still wandering around the same school corridors in the background.

Eventually, we returned to searching for the final rabbit location. We’d checked upstairs, downstairs, the library and practically every room we could access. I was beginning to think we must have missed another door somewhere, or that one of the items we’d collected was supposed to open a new route.

After another trip around the map, we ended up heading back towards the beginning of the level. I remember thinking there couldn’t possibly be another magical patch outside, because surely we’d have noticed it earlier.

Naturally, there was.

The final location was right outside, practically where we’d started the entire level. After all that walking around Sunnydale High, the last place we needed to visit was one of the first areas we’d been through.

Unfortunately, we still couldn’t simply put the bunny down and carry on. One of the little gremlins kept appearing near a hole and killing the rabbit before we could finish the puzzle. We tried several different approaches, including seeing whether we could reach it with our weapons, use the surrounding objects or deal with it using the equipment we’d collected.

Gary suggested fumigation bombs, and after more experimenting with our assorted tools and explosives, we finally managed to deal with the creature and keep the rabbit in place. That was enough to finish disrupting the magic and remove the barrier.

At long last, we could continue!

Even better, after approximately an hour and forty-five minutes, we finally reached a checkpoint. Given that we’d spent most of the evening knowing one unfortunate death could send us all the way back to the beginning, that was an enormous relief.

Of course, finding a checkpoint at that particular moment could only mean one thing.

There was probably a boss fight waiting for us.

And sure enough, we walked into the next area and found ourselves facing Xander’s girlfriend, Anya, or rather Anyanka in her demon form.

As soon as we entered the arena, we could see five platforms arranged around the area. After everything we’d just been through, it was immediately obvious what we needed to do. We had to place five rabbits on the platforms to disrupt Anyanka’s magic, giving us an opportunity to attack her.

That was straightforward enough in theory. Unfortunately, the little gremlins were back, and they were considerably more irritating this time.

They kept spawning around the arena and attacking the rabbits, removing them from their platforms and forcing us to replace them. Meanwhile, Anyanka was attacking Xander, frequently knocking him to the ground. Getting back up took ages, and the constant interruptions made it difficult to get much damage in before we had to run off and replace another bunny.

We initially tried clearing out the gremlins first, thinking that might give us an opportunity to concentrate on the boss. Unfortunately, they just kept respawning. There wasn’t much point spending all our time fighting them when another would appear almost immediately.

So, the fight became a repeated routine of running around the arena, deploying rabbits, dealing with whichever gremlins were causing trouble and getting a few punches into Anyanka whenever the opportunity presented itself. We were gradually reducing her health, but every time a rabbit disappeared, we had to stop attacking and get the magic working again.

And then there was the squeaking.

Xander made a constant squeaking noise throughout the fight on the gym floor, which became increasingly irritating as we continued replacing them. Between that, the gremlins and Anyanka repeatedly knocking Xander over, I was certainly ready for the fight to be finished.

Eventually, we got her health down to what looked like a single pixel. Victory was almost ours, and it seemed as though we only needed one more successful attack.

Then one of the gremlins managed to destroy all five bunnies.

Of course it did.

With Anyanka practically defeated, we suddenly had to run around the entire arena again, replacing every rabbit before we could finish her off. Thankfully, we managed to get all five back into position, disrupt her magic one final time and land the last punch.

And that was it. Anyanka was defeated, and we’d finally completed the level!

The results screen showed that we’d managed 133 kills, found one secret and used one continue. Considering how much of the evening had been spent wandering around looking for a key, I was rather pleased that we’d actually made it through without suffering another death loop.

It had taken roughly two hours to finish just this one level, but after being stuck there since last Halloween, we’d finally made some meaningful progress. More importantly, the game had saved our progress, so when we return to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds during Halloween Week 2027, we can actually start the next level rather than spending another evening looking for Giles’s key.

We’ve also got the Buffy the Vampire Slayer games for the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, and I don’t think I can wait another whole Halloween to give those a go. We may have to fit them into the schedule sometime before then.

With the level finally completed, it was time to wrap up the evening. We thanked everyone for joining us, including FlyingFox21 for the subscription and TictaqJim for all the gifted subs, before looking ahead to the next few streams. We then finished by raiding into Nazx29, who was playing Hunt: Showdown 1896.

Thank you to everyone who joined us and helped work through all those puzzles. I certainly hadn’t expected to spend quite so much of our Halloween Buffy stream searching for keys and deploying white rabbits, but at least we finally escaped Sunnydale High!

📺 Watch the Episode

If you missed the stream, you can watch the full Buffy episode on YouTube and see exactly how much trouble five rabbits can cause.

You can also follow the whole adventure through the Buffy: Chaos Bleeds playlist.

If you enjoy the video, please consider leaving a like, sharing your thoughts in the comments and subscribing to my YouTube channel.

🔴 Join the Adventure Live

If you fancy joining us for the next round of supernatural confusion, come along to the livestreams on Twitch or YouTube.

There’s always plenty happening beyond the game itself, whether we’re trying to solve an obscure puzzle, chatting about something completely unrelated or relying on the community to help us find a key that’s been missing for nearly an hour.

Everyone is welcome!

💬 Community & Links

The Sunnydale adventure might be finished for this Halloween, but there’s plenty more happening across the community. Whether you want to join the next stream, enjoy some music or explore my other projects, you’ll find everything below.

Live — Join us for more games, conversations and whatever else happens during the stream:

Twitch | YouTube

Community — Join the conversations and keep in touch between streams:

Discord

Socials — Follow along for updates, videos and other bits of madness:

TikTok | Bluesky | Instagram | Facebook | Threads | X

Music — Discover the music accompanying our increasingly unusual adventures:

Spotify | Apple Music

Support — Help keep the streams, projects and community going:

Fourthwall | Teespring | Streamlabs

More — Explore my work, services and other projects beyond the livestreams:

Business Centre | Download the Brochure | About Me | Blog

🎃 Five Bunnies Later, We Finally Escaped!

That brings this year’s Chaos Bleeds adventure to an end. It took us two hours to complete just one level, but after last Halloween’s repeated deaths, I’m pleased we finally made some progress.

We’ll return to Chaos Bleeds during Halloween Week 2027. However, I’ve also got Buffy the Vampire Slayer games for the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, and I don’t think I can wait another Halloween to play those!

We finished the evening by raiding into Nazx29. Thank you to everyone who joined us, supported the stream and helped us navigate Sunnydale High. Hopefully, next time we’ll spend a little less time searching for keys!

— Dr Ravenholm